Friday, August 8, 2008

Military-Style Quartz Diver

So here you go, something non-vintage to wrap-up the week, a military-inspired diver from Hong Kong's Ray Wong. Mr. Wong refers to this as an SBS or SAS diver, but despite the familiarMOD dial, plongeur hands, and broad arrow and circle-T logos there's no actual connection to the British military. The circle-T logo was traditionally used to indicate the presence of tritium in the glowing paint on the dial, but this watch doesn't actually contain any tritium. The caseback also bears some fake numbers and another broad arrow, along with a 30 bar water resistance rating. I suppose it's probably good to 200m, and maybe even 300m, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't tested to 300m and the construction seems similar to watches with a 200m rating (screw-down crown, flat mineral crystal, single O-ring on the screw-in caseback, etc.) This watch says "Swiss Movt" on the dial which is misleading, at best. The movement is an ETA battery-powered quartz movement. It has no jewels and says on it "Swiss Parts" and "Made in China". To me, that's a Chinese movement. Ok, enough complaining. This is actually a pretty nice watch. It has a solid case and bezel, and looks really good, from the dial and hands to the black PVD finish. It's very similar in size and style to some Seiko divers. It has fixed bars in the place of the usual spring bars, so only straps with open ends or military style straps can be used. This is kind of nice as the fixed bars will never break like spring bars sometimes do, and it's another authentic military touch. You might also notice the caseback says Orsa, which is a bit confusing if you're familiar with the Orsa Watch Company as this watch doesn't resemble any of their current watches. Apparently Ray Wong used to produce watches or at least provide parts for Orsa that were very similar to this one. This one isn't an Orsa, but for some reason has Orsa on the back along with the pseudo-military markings.